Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt competes against favorite Boris Johnson in the race for conservative party leader and British prime minister. Now the 160,000 Tory party members are on the train. You decide by first choice who will follow Theresa May and will make the Brexit. Neither candidate will make the talks with the EU any easier.
Hunt received 77 votes in the fifth and final round of voting in the group on Thursday, defeating Environment Minister Michael Gove, who received 75 votes. Johnson is already considered set anyway
He got on Thursday with 160 votes again more than his competitors. He is also considered the candidate who has far more chances than Hunt. Johnson is extremely popular at the party base. He is credited with reclaiming Brexit voters who have turned away from the Conservatives.
But Hunt and Johnson are now in a runoff election against each other, in which the party members have the last word. It should be known by the end of July who will become the new party leader and therefore prime minister. Beforehand, they will introduce themselves to Tory members at about 15 regional conferences.
Johnson does not want to pay the bill
He was one of the spokesmen for the Brexit before the referendum in 2016. This is now, after two shifts, to be completed by 31 October. So far it is not clear how a new party leader could succeed in finding a solution. Johnson has committed to Brexit if necessary, even without an agreement with the EU to accomplish.
And he threatened the EU not to pay Britain’s exit bill until the EU agrees to better exit conditions. „Our friends and partners need to understand that the money will be held back until we have more clarity about what to do next,“ Johnson said in a recent interview.
To get a „good deal“, „money is a great tool“. According to the current agreement, the UK would have to pay a withdrawal bill estimated at around € 45 billion. The final bill includes long-term burdens such as pension payments for EU officials.
New shift is excluded
Hunt called an exit without agreement, however, as „political suicide“. He considered postponing the EU exit again. In turn, the EU does not want to allow that.
There is „enormous opposition“ in the EU governments against a new postponement of the exit date in late October, Irish PM Leo Varadkar said Thursday at the EU summit in Brussels. This would be conceivable at most in the case of new elections or a second Brexit referendum in the UK. „What will not happen is a postponement for further negotiations.“
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt
Finance Minister Philip Hammond warned the remaining candidates against a Brexit without agreement („No Deal“). An unregulated exit from the EU would damage the economy, cost billions of pounds in taxpayer money, and could trigger a breakup in the UK, Hammond said on Thursday in London, according to a pre-popular speech.
This could also pave the way for Labor Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to downing Street in an election, warned the EU-friendly Hammond. The candidates for Mays successor as Tory boss and thus also as Prime Minister would therefore have to submit a „Plan B“. Until finally a successor is established, May remains in office as head of government.
